Research initation grant to CRS researcher Emin Poljarević - Lived Islam and Meanings of Muslimness in the 21st Century

Through the project he will investigate, among other questions, how do Muslims civil society organizations (MCSO) evaluate the views and productions of images of Muslims by power-brokers in self-described secular states? What role do these perceptions and evaluations play in motivations behind Muslims’ engagement in civil society activism and mobilization in both Islamicate and non-Islamicate societies? And subsequently, what is the self-ascribed role of MCSO in the selected cases (including Sweden)? This approach allows involved researchers to examine the understanding of a part of Muslim social actors’ perception and meaning-making processes in contemporary (and oftentimes antagonistic) socio-political contexts.